Nacon Revolution Unlimited Pro Controller (V3) – Preview
NACON is a brand that got an official partnership with PlayStation to get their hardware optimized for the best experience and connection with the Sony console. It’s a tight collaboration that brought some hardware to the outside world that’s not your standard PS4 equipment. One of those hardware releases was the Revolution Unlimited Pro Controller, that has been around for two generations already. And now, a third one is here. We got a chance to quickly try it out and play around with it at a NACON press event.
The Revolution Unlimited Pro Controller V3 is one of those controllers that has, according to NACON, been made in collaboration with Pro Gamers and their feedback. Firstly, let’s talk about what’s new compared to the previous controllers, then about the buttons and options it gives you, and lastly about how it plays and feels.
So, looking at previous controllers of the Revolution Unlimited series, there have been made some remarks in terms of the functionality and design. The touchpad in the middle has been redesigned to get closer to PlayStation with a cascading waterfall type of bend around the top of the controller, the buttons have been made less shiny and more fluid in the design, and there is some relocation done to the buttons on the bottom, making them easier for your hands to find. The buttons above the triggers now have more of a feel and click to it that resembles a traditional mouse for a PC, which is a questionable design choice. Yes, you get your feedback from clicking the button, but does that make it any better? Or is it annoying? The D-pad has also been made to look more traditional with better contouring, though it still works in eight directions if you want it to. Overall, especially on pictures, the controller does look good though. Especially with the LED ring around the right analog stick that you can set to your preferred colors and flashes.
The key component of the Revolution Unlimited Pro Controller V3 is that it’s made to be macro-customized to the specific needs of each (pro) gamer, and can be fun to mess around with. The analog sticks, which are both 1.8cm now instead of previously one being 1.6cm and one being 1.8cm, are probably the biggest example of this. You can not only change the top bit to either have an inlay or a more traditional round surface, but you can also change the girth of the connector in between, allowing you to set a certain radius. For gamers who play as a sniper or who drive fine-tuned cars as an example, it can be convenient to not let the radius of the analog stick go too wide, giving you more control over your precise actions. The same goes for the grips on each side, which can be fitted with weights. These weights are delivered with the controller, just as any other parts, and go to a maximum of 16 grams on each side.
The controller is also made to switch between either wired or wireless function, which you switch by pressing a button on the back to make sure the controller does what you want. The wireless function, sadly, does not operate with the PS4 directly. Instead, it comes with a dongle that you have to attach and is rather big. The reason why NACON claims this is done is to make the wireless function not only go smoothly and basically latency free (less than 1ms!) but also to improve the audio quality of headsets connected to your controller, making the audio better than before. The back of the controller has buttons to quickly lower or increase the audio as well, buttons on the grips that are normally the same as the triggers but can be customized, and there is an option to switch between different profiles of your preferred layout buttons, to quickly set them as you like after customizing (and checking the performance!) with the delivered software where you can rig the controller on your PC. And, if you want to play on your PC, the Revolution Unlimited Pro V3 also has you covered. Last, but not least, you can hold some buttons so the controller will give you feedback about how much battery it has left, negating the annoying function of having to pause your game to check.
All good and well, but what does it feel like when holding it? Keep in mind this controller is about a whopping 160 euros/dollars on release. Sadly, it feels kind of cheap. And how it feels is most important in the end. The mouse buttons on top that click, the clicks and feedback you get from the regular buttons and D-pad, even the analog sticks. They all feel like you use something without depth. Maybe this has something to do with the fact that the controller is very light, degrading its perceived value a lot. Compared to the traditional Xbox One and the PS4 controller, this one from NACON feels like air even with the 16-gram weights on each side. Perhaps that a pro gamer perceives this differently (especially after hours and hours of gaming), but it’s definitely a weird choice when it comes to making something with this price so widely available. For those who aren’t pro gamers though, there is always still one of the other, cheaper controllers available (wired, about 40 euros/dollars) that are comparable to the PS4’s traditional controller.
Conclusion
The NACON Revolution Unlimited Pro Controller V3 is offering you a considerable amount of options to customize and adapt the piece of hardware to your body, preferred style or game. Yet for a controller with a high price tag, this doesn’t change the fact that in the short time that we got to put our hands on it, it felt cheap and overly light. Perhaps that a more extensive play session is different and it takes some getting used to, but for a quick first look it doesn’t seem like it’s worth its asking price by a long shot.
Nacon Revolution Unlimited Pro Controller (V3) - Preview,
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